Self-invigilation is the supreme identifying characteristic of a CULT.
We watch and report on each other.
TerryWalstrom
JoinedPosts by TerryWalstrom
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29
Watchtower Spies and Secret Agents
by TerryWalstrom ini'm posting this link:http://jwdivorces.bravehost.com/spies.htmlonce you start reading it you won't be able to stop.fascinating and well-documented citations which give credibility to the belief that such a sneaky, underhanded, and often illegal practice has been secretly promoted for decades by watchtower society world headquarters..
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TerryWalstrom
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23
Very little that is factual in the Bible?
by TerryWalstrom inhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mryipltf3i.
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TerryWalstrom
I married into a Jewish family for about 18 years and found (Reformed) Judaism to be among the most practical of religions. In fact, my Father-in-Law was a better "Christian" than most Christians as far as how ethically he treated others.
My Sister-in-Law was more hardcore. She, her husband, and kids kept all the dietary rules. I found out through talking to her husband that in college Orthodox Jews have a separate set of textbooks for Science! No mention of evolution at all.
That is astonishing. -
23
Very little that is factual in the Bible?
by TerryWalstrom inhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mryipltf3i.
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TerryWalstrom
The contrast in personalities in this program is fascinating to watch.
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29
Watchtower Spies and Secret Agents
by TerryWalstrom ini'm posting this link:http://jwdivorces.bravehost.com/spies.htmlonce you start reading it you won't be able to stop.fascinating and well-documented citations which give credibility to the belief that such a sneaky, underhanded, and often illegal practice has been secretly promoted for decades by watchtower society world headquarters..
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TerryWalstrom
There is a kind of old-fashioned prudery and puritanism among men in JW's.
I do think there is an attraction of a certain sort of psychology which draws alienated masculinity into the fold.
It is a kind of attraction/repulsion dynamic I'm unable to describe or comprehend because I'm no clinical psychologist, of course--but I've seen and observed it all my life.
Gossip is a big deal in congregations and my own theory is that wives of Elders get the juicy details and it empowers them as a source among peers.
When you have no sex life of your own, the 2nd-hand Peeping Tom dynamic asserts itself.
I've met my share of weirdoes in the religion. Hell--maybe I even was one at one time.
(It took me many years and several marriages to work out my problems.) -
29
Watchtower Spies and Secret Agents
by TerryWalstrom ini'm posting this link:http://jwdivorces.bravehost.com/spies.htmlonce you start reading it you won't be able to stop.fascinating and well-documented citations which give credibility to the belief that such a sneaky, underhanded, and often illegal practice has been secretly promoted for decades by watchtower society world headquarters..
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TerryWalstrom
I'm posting this link:
http://jwdivorces.bravehost.com/spies.html
Once you start reading it you won't be able to stop.
Fascinating and well-documented citations which give credibility to the belief that such a sneaky, underhanded, and often illegal practice has been secretly promoted for decades by WatchTower Society World Headquarters. -
8
The Old Kingdom Hall, memories of old friends, days and times now vanished...
by TerryWalstrom inold friend (in memorium).
we found the site of our old kingdom hall--no longer a place of cult activity--unless the electric supply business has a dark side.
all those meetings, songs, conversations!
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TerryWalstrom
My two oldest friends from the JW era, Johnny Santa Cruz and Quentin Robburts.
Johnny stayed in and Quentin left in the early 70's.
Johnny was fond of saying "I know how to play their game."
He didn't see any irony in saying that. -
23
Very little that is factual in the Bible?
by TerryWalstrom inhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mryipltf3i.
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14
The Telephone we take for granted!
by TerryWalstrom inmarch 10, 1876: “mr.
watson —come here—i want to see you” the voice of alexander graham bell is transmitted.
he wasn't the first to invent it but the first to own a patent.. in 1910 telephone "subscribers" had 4 digit telephone numbers.soon, larger cities had 5 digit numbers.mark twain was one of the first to have a phone in his home.. the first phones had no dials or buttons.
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TerryWalstrom
I often think I was born at EXACTLY the right time to experience a certain level
of simplicity in life before major innovations in technology transformed society.
Simple was beautiful.
Everywhere I go I see people sitting and NOT talking to each other. They are on their "device."
As a kid, I spent all day out of doors. If I had had access to a computer or video games I'd have missed out on private thoughts, ideas, concepts slowly formed by contact with the "reality" of childhood.
People don't seem to want to KNOW things themselves anymore.
They can Google it. Why know it?
People don't read and they've lost all the wisdom of all those writers in past generations. Everything is movie-versions. A very poor substitute--like plastic flowers.
My life experience of BEFORE and AFTER is non-transferable except by my writing it and you taking the time and trouble of reading it.
Okay, so let me use a movie reference:
I feel like the replicant, Roy Batty, at the end of Blade Runner.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Time to die. -
8
The Old Kingdom Hall, memories of old friends, days and times now vanished...
by TerryWalstrom inold friend (in memorium).
we found the site of our old kingdom hall--no longer a place of cult activity--unless the electric supply business has a dark side.
all those meetings, songs, conversations!
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TerryWalstrom
OLD FRIEND (in Memorium)_____________We found the site of our old Kingdom Hall--no longer a place of cult activity--unless the electric supply business has a dark side.All those meetings, songs, conversations! Gone.We stood outside in that eerie driveway and did a 360 slow turn with golden sunshine pouring over us and big old smiles, peeling back the years.__My oldest friend, Quentin, and I realized we'd been on quite a life journey and few good times remained at the bottom of life's barrel.Somehow we both knew...THIS day is our last spent together. Two friends, human fossils in a washed up creek bed for paleontologists to ponder.Well--we'd make the most of it.__We had driven clear across town to the Polytechnic part of Ft.Worth where we'd spent our youth knocking about.These magical locations of Jehovah's Witness picnics, knocking on doors offering Watchtower and Awake! magazines with spiritual "brothers"-- friends...it was nostalgia straight to the bone.None of those cult friendships existed any longer. We'd both been shunned. We had each other--more than compensating, I'll tell you for certain.it should have been easy to find these locations--they weren't. Things change, you see. Oh, how they change!__This day's adventure was certainly bittersweet.We'd stood like jumpers on a ledge surveying the downward path before impact. Old age contemplating inevitability.__We laughed.We laughed too much. It hurt in more than one way.__Quentin had a coughing fit and had to collect himself at one point.Our thoughts flew in all directions.There were, of course, the girls we had crushes on, the ones who got away--we spoke the names of those beautiful dreams like a priest recites a heartfelt prayer.The Sisters from the Dallas congregations drove over to the happy hunting grounds of Ft. Worth congregations. Everybody eventually dated everybody else. Mix and match.Dating worldly teens was strictly forbidden, you see.There were consequences! Way too young marriages, for one thing. A life of shlepping drudgery waiting on a New World paradise which never arrived.Everybody we knew made sacrifices until we ran out of excuses and went off on our own. Most of them stayed rooted waiting on Armageddon. They wait still...A hero's journey of innocence had zig-zagged off the yellow brick road. None of any of it turned out as expected.__"Remember the time..." Yes, we certainly did. Accurately? Well, maybe--maybe not.We lived in each other's memory, supplying missing evidence how once we'd lived with an eternity of tomorrow's stretching like a fabled river in front of us.There were sweet memories. Good friends bond that way.__More than a few shared tears that day.Sweet tears; not the bitter ones.__At day's end, like a cowpoke with swollen feet tugging on narrow boots, Quentin huffed and grunted into his vehicle. We paused at that moment and stared at each other one last time.By god, we knew it was THE last time, we did.__"I love you, my friend.""I love you too."__The sunset arrived and night fell. I found myself in my bed staring at shadows on my ceiling."We're all shadows now," I whispered to myself.__I cherish that day Quentin and I shared like a family heirloom.So, once more I turn that day in my mind so's it catches the sun just so and gleams ever brightly. Medicine for Melancholy Ray Bradbury would call it.__Friends and time itself dissolve like marvelous lumps of sugar in a robust cup of life itself, sweetening the flavor with every sip.I still love you, Q.Always will.
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14
The Telephone we take for granted!
by TerryWalstrom inmarch 10, 1876: “mr.
watson —come here—i want to see you” the voice of alexander graham bell is transmitted.
he wasn't the first to invent it but the first to own a patent.. in 1910 telephone "subscribers" had 4 digit telephone numbers.soon, larger cities had 5 digit numbers.mark twain was one of the first to have a phone in his home.. the first phones had no dials or buttons.
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TerryWalstrom
Ahhh, the PARTY LINE!
It was an economical compromise between a higher phone bill (for private) and sharing the same phone number with an anonymous "other" family.
Naturally, the temptation was always there to eavesdrop on private conversations.
If you screwed off the speaker end of your receiver mouthpiece there was no chance your nefarious listening in would be detected.
This sort of aural Peeping Tomism was a guilty pleasure for many.
I remember in 1983 when I moved back to Texas from California. I stopped at a phone booth to make a call and dropped in my dime. I couldn't get the blasted thing to work.
Long story short, after contacting the phone company I discovered the cost of a call had skyrocketed to 25 cents!!
I remember shouting: "I WILL NEVER pay that much for a call."
You see, I had lived many a year with the cost at a nickel. When it doubled to a dime--well--that was scandalous.
